1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing system, information processing apparatus, print job processing method, information processing method, program, and storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the commercial printing industry, a publication passes through various kinds of work steps during its production, publication and distribution including entry of a document, design of the document, layout editing, comprehensive layout, proofreading, proof, block copy preparation, printing, post-processing, and shipping. “Comprehensive layout” may be understood to mean the presentation of the document by printing, “proofreading” is understood to mean layout correction and color correction of the document, and “proof” is understood to mean proof-print, or the printing of a trial impression before the final publication is printed.
In the commercial printing industry, an offset reproduction printing press is often used in the printing process, so block copy preparation is indispensable. However, once the block copy is prepared, it is difficult to correct the block copy, and correcting the block copy raises costs. Hence, block copy preparation requires careful proofreading (i.e. careful layout check and color confirmation). It generally takes a significant amount of time to prepare and issue publications.
In the commercial printing industry, most apparatuses used in the respective work steps are bulky and expensive. Additionally, work in each step requires expert knowledge and, therefore, know-how of experts called craftsmen.
Under these circumstances, a so-called POD (Print-On-Demand) market is recently appearing along with the advent of high-speed and high-quality electrophotographic and inkjet printing apparatuses, and is competing with the commercial printing industry.
The POD market, which is replacing large-scale printing presses and printing methods, handles jobs of relatively small lots in a short delivery period without using any bulky apparatus or system.
The POD market implements digital printing using electronic data, and provides print services and the like by making the best of printing apparatuses such as a digital copying machine and a digital multifunction peripheral.
In the POD market, digitization has progressed, and management and control using computers have penetrated as compared to the conventional commercial printing industry. The use of computers enables issuing of printed materials in a short delivery term, and obviates the need for expert know-how. These days, the quality of printed materials is coming close to that of the commercial printing industry.
In these situations, office-equipment makers and the like are currently considering entering the new field of the POD market (e.g., see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-090631). In particular, they are examining printing apparatuses and printing systems capable of fully satisfying requirements not only in an office environment but also in a POD environment that expects uses and needs different from those in the office environment. For a printing environment assumed in the POD market, how to improve the productivity of a printing system as well as how to design a user-friendly printing system for an operator while maintaining high productivity are expected to be important questions.
In recent years, JDF-compatible printing apparatuses have prevailed in the POD market. The JDF is a promising digital format (also called an “instruction statement” or “job ticket”) common to all printing processes in the POD printing system that is defined by CIP4. JDF stands for Job Definition Format, and CIP4 stands for Cooperation for the Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress. The JDF format uses the basic format “XML”. The JDF is expected to facilitate management throughout all printing processes. For example, production control, and confirmation of the operating states of devices including a printing apparatus and bookbinding apparatus can be done on a website by using the feature of the JDF.
The JDF instruction statement can describe not only instructions to a single device, but also instructions associated with a series of work processes achieved by cooperation between devices, including document entry to delivery of printed materials serving as a final product. A single JDF instruction statement can also manage a workflow of processes using a plurality of devices. The JDF instruction statement enables cooperation between devices engaged in all printing processes and automation of various devices.
In this situation, JDF-compatible printing apparatuses have been developed for printing systems aimed at the POD market in order to make full use of JDF advantages.
As described above, for example, it is desirable for office-equipment makers to study the POD market situation and cope with use cases and user needs which do not occur in the office environment when fully entering the new POD market from the office environment which is their home market at present. In other words, in full-scale entry to the POD market, they must deliberately examine practical application of digital printing systems suited to the POD environment. However, a variety of user needs are predicted as follows when commercializing printing systems suitable for even the POD environment.
For example, a JDF-compatible digital multifunction peripheral needs to enable print settings designated by a job ticket. The job ticket is a device-independent common format which exploits the advantages of the JDF aiming at processing a job by various kinds of devices. Unlike a printer driver, the job ticket can be created without knowing any device specification or configuration information.
If a printing apparatus and system are actually configured considering this, new problems and users' needs that are to be tackled arise. For example, a printing apparatus (printing system) may not be able to completely execute operations designated by a job ticket depending on the execution environment (e.g., device capability or mounted accessories). For example, when a user designates printing using a job ticket but the printing apparatus (printing system) cannot create the designated printed materials (e.g. it is a black-and-white printer, but the job ticket is for a color print), he may want to cancel processing of the job. In a printing environment in the POD market, printed materials created by a printing system are highly likely to be handled as products to be delivered to customers. In this POD printing environment, printed materials which cannot be delivered to customers may be treated as wasted output. In a printing environment, like the POD environment, it is important for cost reduction to avoid a failure cost as much as possible if the printing system cannot create printed materials as designated. Such a demand will arise when a user (operator) in the POD environment wants to reduce the cost of defective outputs, so the printing system desirably meets this demand.
To cope with this, the JDF defines a specification to allow notification of device capability information of a printing apparatus. The device capability information creates notifications about JDF specifications processible by a printing apparatus, and enables cooperation between even mutually unknown printing apparatuses or systems. With the device capability information, a client can automatically generate a job ticket processible by a printing apparatus. Also, a device capability information test can be conducted to determine whether the printing apparatus can process the generated job ticket. The printing apparatus itself can use device capability information generated by it to determine whether it can process a received job ticket. These functions are indispensable for a JDF-compatible device to cooperate with unspecified JDF-compatible devices.
However, JDF specifications processed by devices are very complicated. The device capability information test executed for a job ticket by a printing apparatus is time-consuming, generating a printing standby time. When a normal print job is used, a printing apparatus is often shared between a plurality of client PCs connected via a network. When a plurality of client PCs input a plurality of print jobs to the apparatus, a plurality of jobs are queued in it. In such a case in which a printer is shared, a shorter printing standby time leads to a higher use efficiency of the device. This is an important factor for improving user-friendliness.
A printing system using the JDF requires device capability information because a job ticket may be created while device specifications and configuration information are not clear. In other words, a printing apparatus need not conduct the device capability information test as long as it is guaranteed that a client creates a job ticket with full knowledge about the arrangement of the printing apparatus and the specifications and status of device capability information.
From this, a printing apparatus notifies a specific client of processible JDF specifications in advance. The client generates JDF data processible by the printing apparatus, thereby shortening the printing time. In this case, the printing apparatus can start processing without performing the device capability information test for a job ticket transmitted from the specific client. The job ticket can therefore be processed quickly.
However, this configuration suffers the following problems. JDF specifications processible by a printing apparatus are not always constant. The printing apparatus may not completely execute operations designated by even a job ticket transmitted from a specific client. JDF specifications processible by a printing apparatus change depending on a change of the device configuration, a change of medium information, a change of the remaining amount of consumables, a change of the device status, and the like. Upon the change, the printing apparatus notifies the client of device capability information. However, no method is proposed to determine whether the device can process a received job ticket.